just a 44 year old man seeking to share my meanderings with the world at large or the blogosphere at small

Friday, October 05, 2007

Maslow and Jesus

I have an AA in psych from a jr college. Only time I ever got a 4.0 gpa whoohoo lol Psych is a very interesting field I inherited my interest as my mom has been a psych nurse for the majority of her professional life. One of the concepts covered in psych 100 is Maslows *hierarchy of needs* It consists of a pyramid with most basic needs at bottom level and highest level at top. The goal is to become *self-actualized* The base of the pyramid is physiological food water sustaining life. Next level is safety and security and all that provides for them. Next is acceptance and belongingness and fianlly self-actualization. Hope I didnt leave a level out. Being self-actualized is to be free of baggage psychologically relationally and emotionally that cripples your ability to function at the rate you desire to and which you were meant for. Finding ways to have all the needs levles met gives us the best way to acomplish our goals.

Maslow had a solid theory humanistically speaking but where is God in this?? What about our fallen condition which has us messed up at the core level??? I thought of this because i have been perusing various blogs and saw some very intriguing discussion about the failure of evangelicals to communicate their faith and relate in a basic normal human fashion to atheists,pagans and others who are not within the *christian subculture* i think Jesus taught the most basic of all psychology. He taught that God meets all of our needs. God takes care of nature and His creation and He takes care of His most inventive creation humans. What are the 2 greatest commands according to Jesus???? Love God with all we've got and love everyone else as we love ourselves. Hmmmmm no need for a special understanding to get that. It seems we have become so adept at labeling people we just forget Jesus simple yet most profound commands LOVE GOD LOVE PEOPLE!!!! So many verses get twisted in their meaning about how once we are *christians* we are to act towards the *world*

When i first became a christian i began to go to Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa california its a pretty famous church actually. I used to go to the concerts on saturday nights where they had christian bands play and a sermon as well. The whole focus was always *Jesus is coming back ANYDAY so you better turn or burn and get all your family and friends saved!!!* My mom and sister can attest to the effect hearing those messages had. i mean i was a brand new christian late great planet earth was the craze it was a trendy thing then to believe the Rapture could happen any moment and I wanted to make sure my mom and sister were not missing out!!! So of course i used all kinds of stuff to reach them and save them including i believe telling them to turn to Jesus or they would go to hell.. You have to understand i was seriously wanting to use ANYTHING that would influnce them and lead to their salvation. Well i make a terrible Holy Spirit and lo and behold they both came to their own unique relationship with God Jesus and the Holy Spirit despite my frenzied efforts. The thing about Calvary Chapel also they had sooooooooooooo many people come forwars to accept Christ yet they had little to no discipleship program as do so many churches. So clear where our focus is all too often in the church get em *saved* then go on to the next one. I think Jesus wanted to be concerned with the *whole person* not just their soul. But well that takes time a LOT of time hard work often challenging scary out of the comfort zone and we do live in a *fast foodnation* Im preaching to the choir all so dont get combative lol i just am really having my eeys opened to deeper realities of how Jesus REALLY wants us to go about being His servants so much to say i will be having plenty of posts to come. happy weekend all!!!!

1 Comments:

I so believe that you are spot on here, the church as a whole focuses to much on the saving part and lack in the teachings which I believe is an integral part of knowing Jesus and understanding why you should follow his direction.I just lost what I was saying by typing over it lol but you get what I mean. Great Post Robert